Not a fan of either to be honest. Rudd is well spoken and conveys himself well but I think he could have a better support staff around him. I'm not paying any real attention to the policies that either are trying to put forward but they both seem pretty quiet to me at the moment.

The worst thing howard did for the liberals was win the election before last. If he'd lost that one they'd be back in by now as it is they'll be in the wilderness for some time to come (thankfully). Even longer if they leave turnbull there.

Turnbull is the liberal equivalent of mark latham.

States should not exist anymore. Expand local council & federal responsibilities and get rid of the layer of bureaucracy in the middle. States made sense when it took 3 weeks on horseback to cross the country. It doesn't anymore.

Discuss any or all.

Surely there's one or more statements in that lot that will start some debate (or possibly get this thread closed...)

I have worked at NSW state parliament house. How can I put this. Your dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. It doesn't matter who is in power as the bureaucrats run the show. Unfortunately we don't get to vote for them.

There are deffinately too many levels of government softlaw. I have the opinion that we would all be better off if state politics was abandoned and have sub-electorates under them. I think things would than move quicker, there would be less deadwood and money can be streamlined more efficiently.

softlaw wrote:States should not exist anymore. Expand local council & federal responsibilities and get rid of the layer of bureaucracy in the middle. States made sense when it took 3 weeks on horseback to cross the country. It doesn't anymore.

That would get my vote. All the states seem to do is bicker amongst themselves. If they were all pulling in the same direction it would make more sense. And what is the relevance of having different laws in different states?

I've been a member since 2012. We last played finals football in 2011. Just saying...

Given the federated States form the Commonwealth of Australia under the Constitution, do you really think you could get the States to willingly fold? Or even that the Australia public would vote for it via referendum?

Just floating an idea, I don't advocate it or anything, but what about adding more States instead, at least on the East Coast not including Tasmania

The border can be the far side of the GDR - so Brisbane, Gold Coast, etc, Sydney, Blue Mountains etc and whatever fits in Victoria, they all become QLD, NSW, VIC and the areas west of that become something else (eg. Western QLD, Western NSW, Western VIC).

After all the city councils in those areas are absolutely useless and do exactly what the State Government of the Day was going to do anyway.